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Burmese Teak
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
A bullock team shoulders teak logs, weighing as much as 4 tons (3,629 kilograms) each, onto a cart in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma). Many governments have banned Burmese teak, but the country still supplies an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the world's teak. Slash-and-burn harvesting threatens to wipe out forests there.
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Amazon Cattle Pasture
Photograph by Michael K. Nichols
Cattle graze among the scarred remains of what used to be a lush stretch of the Amazon rain forest in the Brazilian state of Rondonia. Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, eating away at thousands of square miles of irreplaceable forest lands every year.
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Illegal Logging Site
Photograph by Timothy G. Laman
A clearing in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesian Borneo reveals an illegal logging operation, where loggers fell and mill trees into lumber on site. Deforestation in this area threatens the endangered orangutan population.
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Pantanal Deforestation
Photograph by Nicole Duplaix
Token trees dot Brazil's Pantanal wetland where dense forest used to stand. Considered the world's largest wetland, the Pantanal is an ecological paradise that covers 54,000 square miles (140,000 square kilometers) in Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, and supports thousands of animal species.
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Malagasy Slash-and-Burn
Photograph by John Michael Fay
Scars of bald earth, exposed by slash-and-burn deforestation, encroach on the forests of northeastern Madagascar. Economic pressures have driven the government to exploit one of the most biologically rich areas on Earth for cultivation of coffee beans.
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Deforestation Near Panama City
Photograph by Tomas Munita/AP Photos
Deforestation claims a swath of tropical rain forest along the Rio Chagres river basin. The river is a primary water source for the Panama Canal, and deforestation of the surrounding rain forest causes erosion and sedimentation that can clog the canal and increase the need for dredging.
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